In 2023, Henry Kissinger will mark a century since his birth and more than 50 years of influence on American foreign policy. Kissinger’s centennial represents an important opportunity to reflect on not only his influence, but also the effects of the vision of foreign policy he has espoused.
I am a scholar of American foreign policy who has written on Kissinger’s service from 1969 to 1977 as national security advisor and secretary of state under the Nixon and Ford administrations. I have seen how his foreign policy views and actions played out for good and, mostly, for ill.
When Kissinger entered government as Richard Nixon’s national security advisor, he espoused a narrow perspective of the national interest, known as “realpolitik,” primarily centered on maximizing the economic and military power of the United States.
